Evaluation 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

For our final media product, the music video, we decided to upload it onto YouTube to reach a wider audience - in particular our target audience. This platform allows our video to be exposed to the younger generation who are interested in watching music videos by their favourite artists. YouTube is also a great way for new upcoming artists to get their music heard, for example Justin Bieber was actually discovered through uploading his own videos. This was therefore the best platform to put our music video on.

As our advert is a tour poster, this develops and challenges real media products as these are usually seen on billboards outside and can be promoted onto social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. We wanted to reach a wide audience who would pass the busy streets of London for example, as alternative places such as Camden have billboards of tour posters which would successfully reach our target audience of alternative R&B listeners. While the tour poster would be made an actual poster, it would also be made digital to be shared on social media platforms which is where young people share and communicate media. This tour poster could also be featured in music magazines such as Fader, NME, iD etc to reach the target audience of alternative R&B listeners.

For our music video, we decided to conform and challenge the stereotypes and conventions of our genres alternative R&B and neo soul. As a group, we decided to take inspiration from SZA's music video and follow this nature theme but at the same time add different locations to give off a contrasting vibe. For the alternative genre, it is not unusual to see nature themed videos such as Lana Del Rey's video for Video Games. She also features a mixture of nature looking shots as well as more artificial shots of lights in big cities and intertextuality.

We decided not to use any intertextuality, but to purely feature shots of the locations and artist. This is due to us going for a more conceptual music video rather than a narrative. There is a slight underlining metaphor of changing from childhood to adulthood with the choice of natural locations symbolising purity, and  more darker locations connoting rebellion.

 In terms of our editing, we decided to match the tempo of the song and go for more longer shots that flowed well together, however we did include some quick cuts as well as two quick editing techniques when the song has a jumpy section. At both of these times, the video has this cooler vibe to it which fits in to the R&B genre. These cuts also successfully match to the beat which would entice the audience to keep watching.

 

We also included a few transitions such as the fade in to the next shot transition. This was the enhance this flowed vibe that matches the tempo of the song. This fade in transition can also be seen in other alternative R&B music videos such as Rhianna's video for California king bed. This creates a lovey dreamy effect which matches the mood of the song. Andrew Goodwin highlighted how important it was for music videos to have a certain lighting and colour tone to reflect the songs meaning and artist. We chose to include both high key lighting out in the day, as well as low key lighting in the darkness. The neon lights with the dark skies created this dreamy and illuminating look to it. This is something which is seen in more of an alternative genre of R&B, as we wanted to steer away from the typical conventions of R&B which would probably have the same lighting throughout the video, as the main focus is usually on women in revealing clothing etc. Goodwin also referred to this 'star image' that is conveyed through an artists music video, so to conform to this element we chose a certain type of urban/alternative style for the artist. My costumes consisted of baggy jumpers, trousers, ripped jeans, crop tops etc. This range of clothing was important to show off that the artist has many different styles and would therefore appeal to the audience of young female teens/young adults. This style adheres to the alternative side of the genre, to be a bit different however it does subvert the usual stereotype of women in R&B music videos of wearing revealing clothing to show off their bodies. This then makes them appear as sexual objects, and we wanted to avoid this stereotype to go with the conceptual side of the music video. To do this we chose to specifically have the artist as someone with 'cool' style to match the artsy locations we chose. We had various camera shots and angles to show off our artists such as mid shots, long shots etc to mainly show off the outfits as this was a big part of building the image for us. There are a few close-ups where I lip sync which also help show the emotion of the artist which helps connect to the audience more. The angles of shots also vary as there are some high angle ones that pan and move whilst filming which create this flowing look again.

 

 

We chose various locations such as art galleries, garden places, city nightlife areas etc. to enhance this conceptual theme throughout the music video. The lyrics refer to 'purity' and 'Go to church if you're scared' which evoke hidden meanings of finding oneself and transitioning from childhood to adulthood. These choices of locations challenge the conventions of usual R&B music videos as they usually have settings which include flashy cars etc. However we decided to conform to the more alternative genre of neo soul which has this artistic element of freedom of expression.

We mainly took inspiration of the garden locations from SZA's ice moon music video, but we were also inspired by other music videos such as the visual aesthetics in Majid Jordans music video for 'small talk' which I previously analysed in a blog post. They features this pastel colour effect with pinks, blues, yellows, as well as having performance sections within lights. We also used this similar colour scheme and neon lighting which allows our video to look more professional.

 

Digipaks

 

 

 

We decided to go for this girly pink/peach colour scheme throughout both ancillary texts to convey this femininity that our artist has. This juxtaposes with the choice of costume of a baggy jumper and boyish old skool vans which is what we intended to do; mixing this gender representation of boyish yet girly. This is to appeal to the target audience who like to see something different and not just follow the usual conventions. The font style we choice was quite simplistic so its easy to read as well as appealing. We chose to have this block across and behind the album title to make it stand out. The images we chose were taken ourselves such as the close ups of the flowers. This nature element is something we wished to carry through to all our media products so me holding the flowers and having them feature across the whole digipak helps build this artistic look we were going for. We intentionally covered my face with the title as we wanted our artist to be more about the music rather than selling herself for beauty etc like other R&B artists. This also connects with the silloutte shots we had in our music video. This hidden identity would appeal to our audience as it creates a mysterious tone to her music. We also chose to feature some writing in Urdu to convey the artists culture being Pakistani. We chose the numbering and my name 'Sophia' to be in Urdu which would also appeal to our target audience especially other ethnic minorities who could relate to it. This is something SZA also chose to do but instead had Arabic writing on one of her EP's. This overall fits in with the genre of alternative R&B and appeals to its target audience.  

 

 

 

For our second ancillary text, we chose to create a tour poster to promote the debut album 'Sorbet' for our new upcoming artist. We chose to go for a more simplistic look compared to the album to come across more professional and 'serious' to really sell the artist as someone to go and see. Therefore we chose to keep the background white with shadows evoking a more clean look. We continued the theme of flowers as I'm holding a rose, however chose to have my face on show to promote myself as an artist more and for fans to want to see 'Sophia' live.

 

Overall, I think our ancillary texts have been very successful in terms of fitting into the alternative R&B genre and following the usual media conventions. We stuck to the usual conventions however subverted them also by not featuring the artists face on the album cover. But as this has been done before,  we have successfully adhered to the media conventions seen in today's society.